Why Is My Wandering Jew So Leggy?
Like any other ornamental trailing plant, tradescantia looks classy with restricted and fuller form. But sometimes a few small mismanagements in their caring process can lead your plant towards a leggy consequence.
Leggy Wandering Jew would have long internodes and smaller leaves and its searches sunlight. Leaning toward the light its stem may look weak and thin. And losing its lovely color it may look dull.
During sun-shining months your plant may look thick, with healthy bigger, and brighter-looking leaves. In the cold months, it may spend its energy searching for light, since days are shorter with few hours of light.
And they also turn leggy when you have placed your plant in a low light spot or some obstacle is shading the light.
Loss of leaves and leaves discoloration and long internodes mean light is the main reason for your leggy wandering jew.
- Move your plant to a new location that provides its least need of light be it bright indirect or direct light for a few hours. Note just like other plants too much sun scorches its leaves.
- Avoid watering much on winter days as its water loss in leggy, smaller leaves and soil is less. Ends in root rot and again into trouble.
- Though your wandering jew plants grow faster in spring, it doesn’t require much fertilizer and is in full strength in fall and winter. Dilute and reduce the nitrogen-rich fertilizer to avoid lengthy thin stems.
- In the other case, if roots are coming out or reaching the bottom of the container, it means climate and watering are okay and it’s really running out of resources for its faster growth in that small pot. Go for a next-size planter with a fresh potting mix.
- And finally, if all the above conditions are met, pruning a few leggy stems is essential to make your plant grow wide, thick, and bushy. Prune off the leggy stems, and dead and lifeless leaves.
If you planning for a compact wide and fuller wandering jew, do it like a tight haircut. Nearly you can trim off 60% of the plant. It will encourage new lush growth.
You can save the cuttings for propagation and start them in a new planter.
FAQ: Why Does A Wandering Jew Usually Lose Its Colors?
The most common cause of losing the color of a tradescantia plant is insufficient light. It will lose colors as much less light you provide to a growing wandering jew.
What is The Perfect Watering Schedule for A Wandering Jew?
Water a growing wandering jew once a week with 1-inch deep watering and always let the soil dry between watering. And instead of following a schedule, for wandering jew, we have to water only when it needs and shows signs of dehydration.
Related: How to make your peace lily bushy
How To Prune and Make Your Wandering Jew Bushy?
Pruning in the best way is the key to turning your wandering jew plant more full or bushier. But we are talking about the right process of pruning.
A normal pruning session can keep your plant organized and well-shaped; while an accurate pruning session can inspire the plant to grow with more shoots and branches naturally. Here we refer to the right process in step by step method-
- Pruning is a part of the regular caring regimen for such shaggy shrub tradescantia
- First of all, you need to cut off all the leggy and old parts of your plant
- This way your plant will be more visible and easier to handle
- Now, find the newly emerged shoots and cut them out just above the node
- After trimming them off, pinch off the stem tip once
- Pinching off the newly trimmed encourage the plant to grow more shoots from a single stem
Repeat this process once every couple of weeks and you will get a bushier form of your plant within a few months.
Related: How to Make My Coleus Plant Bushy.
Why is My Wandering Jew Turning Green?
Wandering Jew is a common name of the tradescantia plant as we all know. It is a trailing ornamental plant that grows unusual pinkish to purplish foliage with a nice color variation.
This plant requires typical growing needs like any other decorative indoor plant. But it acts like a true drama queen sometimes with the least negligence.
The commonest issue can have been turning into another colored plant. Most of the time it seems to be green after losing its natural color. So, if your tradescantia plant is having the same problem, these causes may work behind that-
Related: Color changes in bromeliads -reasons and fix
Causes:
- Insufficient light means your plant can’t get enough sunlight per day. You may place your plant in a spot with full shade
- An unsuitable climate can also be a possible reason. It means you are letting your plant exposed to a too-hot or too-cold atmosphere
- A soggy growing medium or wet crown can also be a cause of green leaves on your plant. It indicates that the soil is water-logged and the roots of your plant can’t breathe enough
- Low humidity is another main reason for green leaves. You should remember that tradescantia is a habitat to the tropical climate and thus extra dry condition can affect their tint noticeably
- The long unpruned session is one more in such cases. If you don’t trim old and already green leaves in time, they will start contaminating the other leaves on the plant and turn them green over time
Related Read: How to make wandering Jew bushy – Quick Care Tips
Solutions:
- Provide them with enough bright but indirect light as it is their chief requirement to stay colorful
- Let your plant get exposed only under the sun with partial shade and make sure it can grab bright but indirect sunlight for six hours a day
- Never put your plant under too much sunlight for more than 2 days, even during winters
- Place the planter in an east or west-facing window to provide it with the best thriving climate
- Always use well-drained soil to keep the drainage system of the soil perfect
- You should make sure that the roots of your plant always stay healthy in a dry growing medium
- Keep the humidity level consistently high in the place where you put the planter with an artificial humidifier or through natural methods
- And prune your plant with a proper schedule to keep the dead and unwanted parts away from your plant.
Quick Recap on Leggy Wandering Jew
If your wandering jaw is suffering from the same troubleshooting issue, some common causes may work behind this problem. Here we suggest the commonest reasons in this regard along with their possible solution ideas-
In short Leggy Wandering Jew means not enough light and unhealthy growing conditions.
Deficiency of Light: It means-
- You may put your plant in a spot where it can’t get its required sunlight
- And thus, your plant is leaning toward the light source unnecessarily
Solutions: Relocate your plant to a spot where it can grab bright but indirect light constantly
- Rotate your plant once every few days to provide the same amount of light to every corner of your plant
Wrong Planter: It indicates that-
- You may use a wrong size pot for your plant that is giving root bound or congesting your plant roots badly
- Your plant roots may get pushed from the bottom of a restricted plant and sometimes outgrow the planter
Solutions: Choose a planter that is one size bigger than the plant and with good drainage holes
- Report your tradescantia plant once every 20-34 months attentively to provide the roots with proper resources
Overfertilization:
It means-
- Your plant has a salt buildup issue due to overfertilization for a longer period
- Or you may feed your low-feeder tradescantia plant with a high-nitrogen fertilizer repeatedly
Solutions:
- Do not feed your plant more than once a month and keep the NPK ratio balanced
- Never fertilize your plant during the low-growing seasons like winter
Unsuitable Climate:
This means-
- Your plant is going through temperature stress due to being exposed to too much heat
- Or the growing climate is too cool or low in humidity level
Solutions:
- Provide your plant with a constantly warm temperature with high humidity
- Never let the increasing drop of temperature below 45° F or higher than 85° F, ever
Unpruned Sessions:
This problem occurs when-
- You keep your plant unpruned for a longer period
- Or you let your plant thrive under the pile of uncleaned debris for long
Solutions:
- Trim off the leggy and unwanted parts of your plant immediately once you detect them
- Maintain a proper and regular pruning schedule once every few days, especially during the peak months
Why is My Wandering Jew Turning Brown?
Among the entire troubleshooting problems, this is the most dangerous one. If your growing wandering jew is turning brown without leaving any trace, it is because of some unsolved stress issues. Whatever the reason is, you must find the issue and fix it shortly, before this can turn deadly to your growing tradescantia. Here we lend a hand by referring to the probable causes of this problem along with their suitable curing methods-
Reasons:
- When your plant suffers from root issues due to overwatering
- If your plant has sunburn or heat rash due to overexposed to direct sun
- When your plant is getting low-humidity levels for a consistent period
- If you place the planter in a spot with too much dry air
- And when your plant is getting old and has brown foliage naturally
How to Fix:
- Always keep the roots of your plant healthy by choosing the right pot and soil
- Water your plant only when the top surface turns dry and your plant looks thirsty
- Never put your tradescantia plant under too much sunlight for long
- Always keep the humidity level high in the room where you put this wandering jew plant
- Make the spot has proper air circulation with high humidity and warm temperature
- And propagate your plant to get a renewed form out of your old tradescantia plant to let it get old uninterruptedly